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“It has always been clear from the team that Lewis and I must not collide with one another during a race. If it did happen, and one driver is more responsible than the other, then there will be consequences. I’ve accepted that.”

According to this report 2011 European Formula Three champion Roberto Mehri will make his F1 practice debut for Caterham this weekend, but Andre Lotterer will not continue in the seat as he does not want to race without a full complement of practice sessions, which means Kamui Kobayashi will retake his seat.

“Formula One teams deal with this by either favouring one of the two drivers—in order to avoid internal conflict—or by refusing to side with either driver—thus promoting internal competition. ‘None of the two options entail a positive outcome,’ says Dr Aversa.”

“The best driver is the one who has the most skill allied to the best control of his brain. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg (son of Williams’ 1982 World Champion, Keke) have the world’s best cars and the world’s best engines (Mercedes). They’ve both got it made. It’s going to be a real fight.”

David Brabham: “Dad [Jack Brabham] was all over the news when he died and his name was everywhere and at one time my son 14-year-old son Finn, turned around very innocently and said, ‘I didn’t know granddad was so famous’.”

Not directly about Formula One, but this discussion about whether the 2018 FIFA football World Cup in Russia should be boycotted because of Russia’s actions in Ukraine is relevant to F1’s forthcoming race in Russia.

Happy birthday!

On this day in F1

Five years ago today the FIA announced Renault would face a World Motor Sport Council investigation into allegations their driver Nelson Piquet Jnr was ordered to crash on purpose to help Fernando Alonso win the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

51 comments on Rosberg ready to accept Spa crash “consequences”

Dear God Almighty! If I wouldn’t have refused an invitation to that vanity fair that is GQ awards, I sure as hell would not brag about being in the company of those names. I see just two names that are not making me cringe. Lewis isn’t one of those two I’m starting to think.

Yeah he does, You cannot take place in an official F1 session (Including group test’s) without one.

He doesn’t have one yet, However as a former Euro F3 champion he should be eligible for one so I’d guess that he’ll be granted one tomorrow.

The sticking point could be that his F3 title came in 2011 while I believe the rules on been granted a super-license stipulate you must have won a ‘recognized’ championship within the past 2 seasons (If you have not done the 300km of F1 running in a private test).
Although I believe there is a provision which allows a super-license if you have run consistently well & scored consistently good results in a recognized championship And/Or come close to winning the championship.

He would qualify under the provision having won a few World Series By Renault races this season & given how he’s currently 2nd in that championships points standings.

@gt-racer No you don’t need a superlicense to run in a FP1. Kvyat did it last year and Verstappen will do it this year. You require a superlicense to run in the remaining sessions which is why you only see 3rd and young drivers in FP1.

I hope the consequences aren’t team orders to not overtake Lewis, I want the drivers to decide the championship.
Congrats to Lewis for his award, those names on his table aren’t half famous!
Two top drivers in the same team is good for business imo, look at the coverage they get on and off camera!
The Russian GP and World Cup are unsafe, not just for violence but for racism from a few but passionate individuals. Same applies for Poland and Ukraine where bananas are thrown and black supporters of the other team are frequently beaten / stabbed. Its disgusting.

So you have a university education, degrees in business, statistics, psychology, mathematics etc. but you still don’t know that the best driver needs the best car to succeed over a season, so Fred and Kim are not underperforming because they are dividing resources but because they are not driving a MB-AMG and Lew and Nic are not under-performing (they are overperforming on past results) because they are in the same team, but because they both have the same equipment,neither is likely to win much more than half the races. Of course had MB replaced Rosberg with Chilton, Hamilton would still have had technical problems but Chilton would have been unlikely to have been a winner at all.

These silly season stories need to be analysed a little more cynically. The reason Ron lets it be known he wants Alonso and Vettel is not because he expects them to move to his even less competitive team but to make his current and potential future drivers to worry about not having a job in F1 and lowering the amount of financial reward they expect for driving a McLaren. Drivers like Alonso and Vettel are happy to play along because it reminds their teams that to try and screw down their pay could result in loseing their talent.

@jcost It would be nice to think Rosberg can’t afford another controversy but history is telling him he can. Everyone lets it pay off – FIA, Mercedes and most of the media. Toto had already laid down the law then when it came to it – nothing. A bit of noise aimed at BOTH drivers and keep the points Nico baby. Niki even apologised, supposedly :(

The F1 institution doesn’t want Nico Rosberg to be labelled a cheat and if he wins the wdc they’ll be even more determined about it.

@lockup And how is it you know F1 doesn’t want Nico to be labelled a ‘cheat’, not that he is? But you are right about one thing…history is telling us he can afford more controversy. MS made a career out of it and came out legendary to some. So yes it is possible that F1 wants a certain result…I just don’t see the push for NR. They just love controversy and the headlines that follow. For me NR has been more contrite and reflective in one article than MS was over a career. And Mercedes is doing their best managing two roosters on the team, thankfully. But, you don’t even want to believe Niki apologized, so your opinion seems as skewed against NR as you claim Mercedes and F1 are for him. Why do you think they pull for NR? To what end?

@robbie I used to really like Rosberg, I have nothing against him apart from his cheating behaviour. I’ll fully believe Niki apologised when I hear him say it, tho that’s grasping at straws I know.

We only need to read Warwick’s words from Monaco to see how desperate he was to find Keke’s son not guilty, or Pirro revealing – as though it was clever – that at Spa they didn’t even analyse the accident but decided in 10s not to investigate.

MS would have been a lot greater to many without those bad episodes, even with fewer wdc’s. Yes NR has apologised, at the point of a gun. But Merc have let him keep the points, and supported him in Monaco, so surely he believes that if it comes to it, say in Abu Dhabi, he can take LH out and keep the trophy. Toto will be cross omg, but he’ll back his new wdc. Even in Spa he was talking about his driverS colliding, after all.

@robbie Lol I am by no means alone. You heard the booing in Spa right? You think F1 fans boo a mistake?

The polls I’ve seen have at half of fans or more thinking both incidents were deiberate.

Merc could have shown Warwick the tyre load data he carefully didn’t ask for, and they could have instructed Rosberg to let the points come level before they resume racing, for example, so it’s been their choice to let NR keep the points. Any team would probably have done the same, to be fair, but it’s hard not to think less of them for it. As it stands they are complicit.

@lockup Rubbish. The fans’ booing, not that that is a gauge of anything given they also booed SV for winning, was a reaction before hearing the whole story, that NR was committed to standing his ground, like rivals do, not to intentionally cut LH’s tire and cost himself the win too. NR admitted he deliberately stood his ground and has now owned the greater share of the responsibility for the incident.

Could have instructed Rosberg to let the points come level? Huh? That doesn’t even make any sense. You are obviously reaching for any scrap to try to support a weak stance when you admit any team would have done the same…whatever it is you are saying that would be.

@robbie I just think Rosberg cheated. Twice. I didn’t want to but I accept the evidence.

The fans booed SV after Multi21 and changing his story, not because he made an error of judgement. And they booed NR for something unsporting as well.

For all the cross verbiage the team have let the cheating pay off, so have the FIA, and so why wouldn’t Rosberg do some more of it if he needs to? It works, does it not? He’s a clever guy, and he has history telling him that.

@greg-c I suppose anything NR said hinting in the direction of contrition was going to be mere PR speak to you, but I think NR hinted in his article that winning some people over may take time. Meantime I look at this as a fantastic rivalry of the type we should hope for for every season, on a team that has taken the high road by respecting the audience that wants to see racing and is having to manage that, with this being the first time NR has had the capable equipment let alone such a close rivalry for all the marbles. PR speak or not, I’ll take this season over many others any day, and other teams could take a lesson from Mercedes on having the guts to let two roosters race in the pinnacle of racing.

@robbie
Mate, I have too add that my cheap stab was at the PR speak NR was “made/asked/forced” to put out, not at NR ;)
I don’t believe the incident warranted it,

but there were tears of blood and calls for his head this being championship contenders ,

if NR has really done this off his own bat then good on him,
I maybe wrong (often am:) but I don’t remember Grosjeans letter to the world for wiping out at Spa half the championship contenders +numerous hotdog stands before the first corner ?